New Jersey Medical Marijuana Program: Don’t Leave Wounded Vets Behind

A Marine Corps veteran called me up just before the Memorial Day weekend. He told me he was from South Jersey and he asked how he could get into New Jersey’s Medicinal Marijuana Program (MMP). He said he had chronic pain from a broken back as a result of a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

I told him that New Jersey’s MMP was extremely restrictive and that chronic pain was not a qualifying condition here unless it was associated with cancer or HIV/AIDS. No traumatic injury, no matter how serious, qualifies for marijuana therapy in this state.

“But I was on opiates for eleven years,” he said. “It was horrible. I was addicted. Then nine months ago, I found marijuana. I’ve been off all opiates entirely for nine months now. Marijuana’s given me my life back. I just want to use it legally.”